Harry Potter and the Heir of Hogwarts
by Lina-Baggins
Summary: Spoilers for books 1 through to 6, I hope to update this regularly! Harry begins his seventh year in the wizarding world... HPHG pairing, also RWLL.
1. Chapter One: And So It Begins

Harry Potter and the Heir of Hogwarts

Author: Gryffindor Sebastian.

Author's notes: This is set post- HBP. There are some spoilers, so if you are reading or are yet to read that book, please do so before reading this story. I can't promise that it will be any good, but it won't be a one-shot and I hope to update regularly.

* * *

Harry Potter stared at his own reflection in the mirror as night settled over Privet Drive. In the dwindling light, he could make out his pale face, punctuated with brilliant green eyes and emblazoned with a scar on his forehead, in the shape of a lightning bolt. It was this scar that had caused him the pain and suffering he had endured the last seventeen years. Well, almost seventeen…

Harry looked at his watch. It was 11:30pm. Hermione had said in her last letter that she and Ron were going to pick him up on his birthday. Well, he still had half an hour to wait and Hermione had never broken a promise to him.

Tired of remaining stagnant, Harry turned away from the mirror and walked to the open window. Hedwig hooted softly in her cage as she followed him with her golden eyes. Harry rested his forehead against the cool glass and stared across the empty street. Everything seemed to feel so… lifeless. He cast his mind back to the last term he had, for lack of a better word, suffered at Hogwarts. Dumbledore… Harry felt his eyes burn. How was he to go on looking for the Horcruxes without Dumbledore there to guide him? Harry sighed. All he had to go on was what Dumbledore had shared with him… if only he had told Harry sooner, he might've been able to help him more.

The quiet beeping of his watch told Harry that it was midnight. Midnight. He was seventeen. The protection of his mother's blood could hide him no more. Harry drew a deep breath. He was truly alone now.

A heavy creak from outside his door told him that Dudley had got up to use the bathroom. Harry grinned to himself and clutched at his wand. Just a little prank… surely it couldn't hurt?

Before he could even move, though, something caught his eye. Something that made his blood run cold. A figure, cloaked in black, had suddenly materialised out of nowhere next to a lamp post. The figure turned its head towards the Dursley house, withdrawing something long and thin from inside the folds of its cloak. Harry felt out of breath. It was times like these that he hated being a wizard. Hated Voldemort, the vilest wizard to ever exist, for tearing every shred of hope he ever had for a normal future away from him.

As Harry watched, more dark-cloaked figures began appearing in the quiet street, converging on the house. They're after me, he thought, desperate for escape. There was no other way he could escape. He'd have to…

'Harry, mate,' came a voice from behind him. Harry whirled around and fired off the first hex he could think of. Hermione easily deflected it. Harry stared at his two best friends through the dark.

'What are you doing here?' he asked, amazed. Hermione took his hand in hers.

'We came to get you. From the look of things, we need to get out of here quickly or else you won't be celebrating your 17th at all,' she said quietly.

'We're Disapparating?'

'We have to,' Ron said, stepping closer to Harry.

'Those are Death Eaters out there and they're looking for you. We need to go now.'

As much as Harry had tried, he had never quite been used to Disapparating. The feeling that his whole body was being forced through a long, narrow tube wasn't the same as an invigorating flight on his Firebolt, the broomstick that his godfather, Sirius Black, had bought him. Harry dragged his trunk over to his friends with a thud as he thought painfully about the night that the Death Eaters had stolen the one person who had been more like a parent to him than anyone else. Including Dumbledore.

Hermione casually flicked her wand at Harry's trunk and it disappeared.

'We all ready?' she asked softly. Harry nodded mutely.

'Where are we going?'

Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

'Well, mate, mum would like you to come back to our place first before you go back to Godric's Hollow. For Bill and Fleur's wedding, y'know,' Ron said, running a hand through his shaggy red hair and down across his long nose. Harry nodded. He was safe at The Burrow. Temporarily.

'Okay, one, two..' Hermione counted. Harry turned on the spot and felt the squeezing feeling he always felt. Suddenly, he felt his lungs fill with air as he stood silently outside The Burrow, the house where Ron and his family lived. The three looked on quietly, not willing to move yet unable to stay out in the open.

'We'd better get inside. Mum went crazy when Hermione and I said we were going to apparate at your place alone,' Ron said. Harry looked at Hermione, who had been watching him closely for the good part of five minutes.

'You go on a bit, mate. I need to talk to Hermione in private,' Harry said, not taking his eyes off her. Ron shrugged and headed towards the house, hands shoved carelessly into his pockets. Hermione and Harry watched as their friend stepped inside his house and closed the door. Hermione reached for Harry.

'No, Hermione,' Harry said quietly, still watching the house. He could tell she was tearing up even without looking at her.

'Why?' she asked, her voice shaking slightly. Harry turned to her. Before they had left Hogwarts the year previous, Hermione had taken Harry aside and given a tearful confession that she had fallen in love with him, that she knew Harry loved Ginny and that she understood if Harry didn't feel the same way. Luckily for her, though, Harry had just broken up with Ginny and to his own surprise, Harry had found that he _did_ feel the same about Hermione.

'You know why,' Harry said, turning to her and touching her cheek in the darkness. Hermione touched the hand at her face.

'I'm not afraid, Harry. Ron and I are with you to the end. You know that.'

Harry sighed.

'I know that. But I can't get involved right now. I really wish I _could_, but Voldemort will be searching for a way to get to me. I can't let him use you against me, first as a friend, then as a girlfriend.'

Hermione let her head drop and cried silent tears into Harry's wrist. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her against him and praying that _soon_, the danger would be over with. He stepped away as she wiped her eyes.

'Come on, Mrs. Weasley will be waiting for us,' he said quietly. Hermione nodded and followed him quietly into The Burrow. As they opened the door, Ron's mother bore down on them like an over-sized hawk.

'Oh Harry, dear, do come inside! It's terribly dangerous to stay outside these days and you really can't afford to take too many chances, can you?' Mrs Weasley said, hurrying them inside. Harry avoided eye contact with the other people in the room, which happened to be his old Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin and his new girlfriend, Nymphadora Tonks.

'Wotcher, Harry?' Tonks said nervously as Harry slid by the table and headed up the stairs towards Fred and George's (Ron's older twin brothers) old room. Harry didn't say anything as he climbed the stairs. He was too tired to care about anything at the moment.

Harry dropped tiredly onto the bed and closed his eyes. He heard the creaking of boards outside his room and heard timid footsteps enter. The bed dipped slightly and he felt the soft touch of Hermione's hand on his.

'Happy birthday, Harry,' she whispered.


	2. Chapter Two: I Just Wanna Wish You Well

Harry Potter and the Heir of Hogwarts

Chapter 2: I Just Wanna Wish You Well

Author: Gryffindor Sebastian.

Author's notes: Chapter two! Hurrah! Lucky me! I finished Redemption Song and got this ARCHIVED! Hurrah! Best of Potter… lucky me…

* * *

Harry awoke the following morning to find a ray of sunlight stabbing through the curtains at his eyes. Rubbing them and blinking tiredly, he sat up and put on his round-framed glasses. It was quiet and the door was shut to his room. He got out of bed and changed into the clothes that he had brought with him from the Dursley's house the night previous.

Harry stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen and sat at the scrubbed wooden table, yawning and looking around him. Everyone there seemed to be in a state of shock. Ron was staring at the table and Mrs Weasley was at the stove, stirring a large pot quietly. Harry looked outside and saw Ginny and Hermione talking in the sunshine-filled backyard. Getting up, he pushed open the door and wandered outside. Hermione was the first to notice him.

'Oh Harry, I'm so sorry,' she said softly. Harry stared at her, slightly bemused.

'What's happened? Everyone's… so quiet!' Harry asked. Ginny ogled at him.

'Didn't Ron show you _The Daily Prophet_ this morning? It was all over the front page!' she said. Harry shook his head. Hermione grabbed him by the arm and hauled him inside The Burrow. She snatched the wizarding newspaper out of Ron's hands and handed it to Harry.

'There… see?' she said, stepping back. It took a few moments for Harry's eyes to focus and understand what was written in block letters for the headline:

DURSLEYS MURDERED: SUSPECTED DEATH EATER ATTACK ON MUGGLES THAT PROTECTED THE BOY WHO LIVED

Harry looked up, shaking slightly.

'It's… it's my fault,' he said, grasping for something that would make it easier to deal with. Hermione swallowed.

'Harry, it's not your fault. Read on.'

Harry examined the front-page article.

_Last night in Little Whinging, the former guardians of Harry Potter, Mr Vernon Dursley, Mrs Petunia Dursley and their seventeen year old son Dudley Dursley were murdered in an attack that was almost certain to have been directed at the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter._

_The muggles have been Harry Potter's guardians for the last sixteen years, but Harry (who turned seventeen yesterday) is now of age and has the right to leave his guardian's house. The attack took place last night at approximately 11:30pm, when several Death Eaters are alleged to have converged on the house and destroyed every living occupant._

'_It was terrible. I woke up and heard the screaming and shouting and all I could think of was poor Harry,' says Arabella Figg, former neighbour of Potter and registered squib._

_More information on protecting your family against Death Eaters can be found inside._

Harry laid the paper aside. Sure, he'd never _liked_ the Dursleys, but he wouldn't've wished this on anyone. Not after his own past was scarred with the works of such evil. Hermione laid her hand gently on Harry's arm.

'Harry, I know you must be scared right now, but don't do anything foolish,' she said. Harry looked at her incredulously.

'Hermione, they KILLED my last living relatives! Assuming that I never marry or have kids, I'm the last of the Potter/Evans line! There's no-one else!' Harry shouted. Hermione winced. Ron, shaken out of his shock, extended his arm and grabbed his friend's hand.

'Mate, I know it's tough, but…'

'No!' Harry yelled, jerking his hand away. Hermione and Ron looked at each other sadly. Harry leapt up and began pacing the floor. He turned to them.

'There's no time to lose. Those Death Eaters are coming after me. I'm the last threat they have! Don't you see? I'm the last line of defence this place had against Voldemort and those who follow him!'

Ron and his mother twitched at the mention of Voldemort and Hermione flashed him a scared look, but Harry ploughed on.

'Don't you get it? By the time Bill and Fleur are married, there might not be a world to save! I have to leave now!' Harry finished, out of breath and collapsed into a chair. The room fell silent again. Mrs Weasley stepped forward carefully.

'Harry dear?'

Harry swung around to face her.

'Yes?'

'Could you at least stay for breakfast?'

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, who were gauging his reaction. Harry sighed and slumped back in his seat.

'Sure.'

* * *

'Where are we going exactly?' Ron asked as he locked his trunk and dragged it over to where Harry was standing beside his own.

'Godric's Hollow. It's where my parents lived before…' Harry began, but fell silent. Ron nodded solemnly.

'I'm sorry things turned out this way, mate. I really am,' he said, shaking Harry's hand. Harry nodded and turned away so that his best friend didn't see him cry. Hermione came down the stairs, her trunk levitating behind her.

'Are we all ready then?' she asked. Harry and Ron nodded. Hermione used the same incantation as she had the night before and the trunks vanished. Harry turned to Ron.

'Are you going back to Hogwarts this year?' he asked. Ron shrugged.

'Not much point if you aren't, is there?'

Harry looked at Hermione.

'And you?' he asked. Hermione hung her head.

'Like Ron said, there isn't much point if you aren't there.'

Harry grinned half-heartedly. He still had some friends in this world, whether Voldemort liked it or not.

'Let's go then,' he said. Mrs Weasley, who had been watching the proceeding, burst into tears.

'Oh please… oh please be careful!' she sobbed, running to Ron's side and engulfing him in a bear hug. It was several minuted before she let him go.

Harry looked from friend to friend, then turned deftly on the spot. Again, he felt the squeezing feeling that indicated apparition. When he arrived, Harry had prepared himself. But what he saw, he wasn't prepared for. Where his house once stood was a pile of rubble and next to, a looming monument; a building with an enormous brass plaque set above the wooden doors:

**POTTER INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS**


End file.
